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"The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them." ~ Confucius

I found a news item which was so
astonishing, and optimistic, that that I completely abandoned what I was
planning to write. Given all of the hate which parents seem to be passing on to
their children right now; this should have been a major story on all main new
outlets, here and abroad.

Recently I watched the news with my
three eldest children, who are teenagers, about the blatant discrimination that
Vladimir Putin is spinning in Russia against gay people, with horror. I got
into a conversation about that and other forms of discrimination and hatred in
this country with my teenage children over dinner table. They were totally amazed
that in this day and age there is discrimination against people’s sexual preference,
and asked me why it’s happening.

My eldest asked “…what if you were a
hater? You wouldn’t want us to change, would you?”

“To be honest, I’ve never thought about
it…” I replied “but in reality it’s difficult to disagree with parents as
you’re growing up, and many never manage to break the mold as adults”. More
often there is a shift in society as a whole that brings the change in personal
opinions, because people become more willing to openly express opinions – for
example, look at the strides that have been made in the fight for equality for
gay people – and not that many years ago, my marriage itself would have been
illegal in many states.

What made me proudest is that my
children expressed their opinion not to agree with me as their father, but
because they had used reasoning to explain their views, asking “…who makes the
rules that some people in the world are less worthy of rights than others? Gay
marriage is constitutional in the USA, but why are some states refusing to
allow it?”.

I could only shrug my shoulders in reply
– it was going to be a very long conversation about a depressing subject...

So it was with absolute amazement that I
found this story about an young man who had been raised and programmed by one
of the most notorious and reviled hate organizations on the planet - the Klu
Klux Klan.

How on earth could a child who was
literally programmed to tow the party line on hatred, and write his own hate
blog for years, grow up to not only disavow his dad’s extremism, but to
denounce it?. Read this story of a brave young man, who is studying in my town
right now, who has used his intellect and moral fortitude to become a leopard
who has changed his spots…

Activist Son of Key Racist Leader Renounces White Nationalism

Derek Black is the son
of the former Alabama Klan leader Don Black; his father once served time in
prison for plotting a racist invasion of a small Caribbean nation and founded
and still runs Stormfront, an
overtly racist white supremacist Web which is the largest of its type in the
world.

Already, at the tender age of 9, Derek Black was attending racist
events like this Nov. 7, 1998, gathering in Jackson, Miss., of the white nationalist
Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a group that has described black people
as a “retrograde species of humanity.” He is pictured here with
then-Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice, one of few politicians who was then still
willing to be seen at CCC events

Amazingly, Derek, now 24 years old and who has just finished his
third year at New College Florida in Sarasota recently renounced the white
supremacist movement that he had been raised in , writing that he had come to
see the arguments of white nationalism as “principally flawed,” adding that he
had come to realize that American society is marked by an “overwhelming
disparity between white power and that of everyone else” and that white
nationalism was really about “an entrenched desire to preserve white power at
the expense of others.”

“Advocating for white
nationalism means that we are opposed to minority attempts to elevate
themselves to a position equal to our own…it is an advocacy that I cannot
support, having grown past my bubble, talked to the people I affected, read
more widely, and realized the necessary impact my actions had on people I never
wanted to harm.”

Courage
in the face of fire

Here’s an example of the courage it may take an adult (who nonetheless
is still the child in the relationship) to move away from his parent’s views.
One can only imagine with horror what Derek was indoctrinated with in his
tender years, and the issues with which he had had to contend by renouncing his
father’s views.

In 2011, Derek had shown that he had moved away from his father’s
views, by posting on a student forum that he was not a white supremacist, a
neo-Nazi or a Klansman, and revealing that he had some unexpected views, such
as support for same-sex marriage, environmental regulation, and legal abortion.

Derek also directly confronted some of the main arguments of white
nationalism, such as the idea that whites are being victimized by non-white
immigration, mixed-race marriages and affirmative action — what amounts, in the
arguments of white nationalists, to “genocide” aimed at destroying the white
race. He also ridiculed many white nationalists’ “particularly bizarre” hatred
of Jews

Can a
child atone for the sins of his father? Maybe...

Derek Black was never an intrinsic racist - he was turned into one
by his father’’ values (or lack of) - a complex and difficult process. He faced
possibly the most extreme type of emotional cruelty from his father, and yet
here he is, proving that there is hope for us the next generation

If there are scientific studies which prove that children are born
with hatred in their genetics, then I couldn’t find any. Let’s hope that this story
will inspire at least one parent to realize that our children are not meant to
hate others – and as proof of this, I offer this section of Derek’s own moving
statement as the final word on the subject…

“I now consider that if there are instances of children being born
with hatred in their genetics then the belief system is principally flawed,” he
said. “I can’t support a movement that tells me I can’t be a friend to whomever
I wish or that other people’s race requires me to think about them in a certain
way or be suspicious of their advancements. Minorities must have the ability to rise to
positions of power, and many supposed ‘race’ issues are in fact issues of
structural oppression, poor educational prospects, and limited opportunity. The
differences I thought I observed didn’t go nearly as deeply as I imagined. I
believe we can move beyond the sort of mind-boggling emphasis white nationalism
puts on maintaining an oppressive, exclusive sense of identity — oppressive for
others and stifling for our society.”

Well said, well done young man, you’re a true torchbearer
for change; parents, let’s help create a generation of others.